New York man charged in cocaine ring among 15 indicted in Hancock County

ELLSWORTH, Maine — A New York man facing aggravated attempted murder, arson and other charges in Penobscot County was indicted Thursday in Hancock County on drug charges.

Oscar Nunez, 25, was one of 15 people indicted. The list included a Bar Harbor man accused of robbing a Bar Harbor pharmacy of prescription drugs last November.

Nunez is in Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth after being extradited from Massachusetts last December to face the drug charges. Maine Drug Enforcement Agency has indicated that last summer its agents found 66 grams of crack cocaine in the Verona Island apartment Nunez was sharing with his girlfriend, Ana de los Santos, 23. She was arrested in July and charged with aggravated drug trafficking. The crack was stored in individual baggies stashed inside WD-40 and Coca-Cola cans with false bottoms, according to an MDEA affidavit filed in Hancock County Superior Court.

Nunez was indicted Thursday in Hancock County on charges of aggravated trafficking in drugs, unlawful possession of drugs and criminal forfeiture.

Last month, Nunez was indicted in Penobscot County on charges of aggravated attempted murder, arson and two counts of criminal threatening. According to Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy, Nunez is accused of setting fire to a house on Johnson Mill Road in Orrington and then of firing a gun at the home. No one was injured in the altercation.

The incident, which occurred July 22, 2012, was a result of a dispute between Nunez and another suspected drug dealer, Almy has said.

Also indicted Thursday was Donald M. Mace Jr., 28, of Bar Harbor, on charges of robbery, stealing drugs and violating conditions of release. Mace is accused of robbing the Rite Aid pharmacy in Bar Harbor of prescription pills on Nov. 15, 2012.

According to Bar Harbor police, Mace allegedly wore black sweatpants, a long-sleeve light-colored shirt, a ski mask and a black mask covering his eyes when he entered the pharmacy and demanded oxycodone. Video recorded by a store security camera indicated that the suspect also appeared to be wearing bright blue shoes on his feet, police have said.

Mace is accused of handing a note with the words “don’t make me get violent,” written on it to a store clerk during the incident, police said.

After getting the drugs, Mace allegedly ran out of the pharmacy’s back door toward a public parking lot and avoided initial attempts by police to track him down. He was arrested a couple of weeks later at his apartment on Ledgelawn Avenue in downtown Bar Harbor.

William Thurston, 18, of Bar Harbor, was indicted Thursday on charges of burglary and theft by unauthorized taking.

Thurston is accused of stealing three firearms — a 10mm Colt handgun, a Savage 270 rifle and a muzzleloader — last month from a Bar Harbor inn, which is closed for the winter, according to police. The owner of the inn interrupted the burglary and, after the suspect fled, gave a description of the intruder to police, who tracked Thurston down and recovered the firearms later that day.

Joel E. Hardy, 29, of Deer Isle, was indicted Thursday on charges of reckless conduct, operating a motor vehicle after suspension, driving to endanger, operating a motor vehicle without a license, and violating conditions of release. Hardy is accused of driving through a stop sign and then colliding with a Hancock County Sheriff’s Department vehicle on Sept. 1, 2012, when police were responding to a domestic confrontation at Hardy’s home on Little Deer Isle.

Lindsey G. Ames, 22, of Dedham, was indicted Thursday on charges of burglary and theft. Ames and her mother were indicted on similar charges in Hancock County in December and in Penobscot County in November.